Process and apparatus for treating materials with a fluid which is under pressure



May 16, 1967 H. FLEISSNER 3,319,275

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MATERIALS WITH A FLUID WHICH IS UNDERPRESSURE Filed Dec. 16, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet l w V TA;

uwgu ron ay 96 H. FLEISSNER 3,319,275

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MATERIALS WITH A FLUID WHICH IS UNDERPRESSURE Filed Dec. 16, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTO N Y United StatesPatent 3,319,275 PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MA- TERIALS WITH AFLUID WHIQH lS UNDER PRESSURE Heinz Fleissner, Egelshach, nearFrankfurt, Germany, assignor to Establishment for Automation, Vaduz,Liechtenstein Filed Dec. 16, 1963, Ser. No. 330,827 Claims priority,application Switzerland, Dec. 15, 1962, 14,756/ 62 12 Claims. (Cl.8-1493) The present invention relates to the treatment of textilematerials, and especially to the treatment of textile materials with afluid under pressure which may also be at an elevated temperature.

As is well known, such treatments are required in order to steam,bleach, or dye textile materials or the like, and suitable treatments ofthe above type can indeed be carried out in a batch-wise manner byplacing the material which is to be treated in a suitable containerwhich is then closed in a fluid-tight and pressure-tight manner, afterwhich the treating fluid which is under pressure is introduced into theclosed container to treat the material therein for a certain length oftime, after which the material can be removed upon opening up thecontainer and of course after the delivery of treating fluid underpressure has terminated. While treatments of this latter type areentirely satisfactory, they of course suffer from the great drawback ofrequiring the material to be treated in batches so that the output is ofcourse greatly reduced.-

Naturally, it is possible to avoid this latter drawback by treating thematerial while it continuously moves through a suitable treating area,but then there is the problem of maintaining the treating area sealedoff from the surrounding area so that the treating fluid at the treatingarea can be maintained at the necessary pressure. Up to the present timethis problem has not been satisfactorily solved. It is known, forexample, to feed the material which is to be treated between rollers andthe like to and from the treating chamber, but with such devices it hasnot been possible to seal off the treating area from the surroundingatmosphere to an extent suflicient to maintain a high pressure in thetreating area.

I It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to providea process and apparatus which will avoid the above drawbarks, making itpossible on the one hand to continuously treat the material withoutinterrupting the movement thereof through the treating apparatus whileat the same time making it also possible to seal off the treating areain such away that a treating fluid under considerable pressure can bereliably maintained at the treating area without the danger of escape ofpressure therefrom.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a process andapparatus of the above type which make it possible to provide a thoroughand very intimate treatment of all parts of the material which is to betreated while at the same time maintaining the seal so that the treatingfluid which is under pressure can be reliably maintained at a relativelyhigh pressure.

It is furthermore an object of the present invention to provide aprocess and apparatus as referred to above which can treat materials notonly at an elevated pressure, during continuous uninterrupted movementof the materials, but also at an elevated temperature.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide aprocess and apparatus which makes it possible to adapt the manner inwhich the material is handled to the characteristics of the materialitself so that a reliable seal can be maintained in a manner which ispar- 3,319,275 Patented May 16, 1967 ticularly suitable for thecharacteristics of the material which is being treated.

With the above objects in view the invention includes, in a process fortreating materials such as textile materials and the like, the steps ofcontinuously transporting the material through a treating zone whileintroducing a treating fluid under pressure into the treating zone andwhile compacting the material just prior to and just beyond the treatingzone to seal the latter off with the compacted material itself so as toprevent the escape of fluid under pressure from the treating area.

Also, with the above objects in view the invention includes, in anapparatus for treating textile materials or the like, an elongatedtreating conduit having an elongated inlet portion and a elongatedoutlet portion, and an intermediate treating portion situated betweenthe inlet and outlet portions. A suitable means communicates with theintermediate treating portion for delivering thereto a treating fluidunder pressure, and a pair of means are respectively situated at theinlet and outlet portions for respecitvely feeding material to andwithdrawing material from the intermediate portion while at the sametime compacting the material which is to be treated at the inlet portionand at the outlet portion so that the compacted material itself willseal olf the intermediate portion to prevent the escape of fluid underpressure therefrom.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theinvention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together, with additional objects and advantages thereof,will be best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation showing in a partlydiagrammatic manner one possible embodiment of a structure according tothe present invention;

FIG. 1A is an end view showing the structure at thev outlet end of thedevice of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of another embodiment of astructure according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of still another embodimentof a structure according. to the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a still furtherstructure according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown therein an elongated treatingconduit having, as viewed in FIG. 1, an upper elongated inlet portionand a lower elongated outlet portion, while between these inlet andoutlet p0rtions is situated an intermediate treating portion in whichthe material to be treated is subjected to the influence of a treatingfluid under pressure. This treating fluid may, for example, be steam,and the material which is to be treated can be a textile material in theform of yarns or fibers or even in certain cases in the form of a wovenfabric. At each of the inlet and outlet portions are provided a meansfor transporting the material as well as for compacting the material insuch a way that the material itself will form a seal preventing theescape of fluid under pressure from the intermediate treating portion.Thus, in the case of FIG. 1, it will 'be seen that the elongated outletportion 16 of the treating conduit is curved so as to change thedirection of movement of the material and in addition the wall of theconduit tapers at its outlet portion to form in this way a means forcompacting the material by retarding the flow thereof out of thetreating conduit and thus preventing the escape of the fluid underpressure through the elongated outlet 16. The elongated tubular conduitcan have any desired cross section. As is indicated by the arrow 17,

the material is fed into the treating conduit at its inlet portion, andin the illustrated example the means for transporting the material atthe inlet portion includes a pair of rollers 7 between which thematerial passes, this material being fed by gravity, for example, from asuitable hopper aligned over the rollers 7 into the nip therebetween,and any suitable motor may be connected through pulleys or the like tothe rollers 7, as shown diagrammatioally at the upper portion of FIG. 1,for rotating the rollers in opposite directions so as to feed thematerial in the direction of the arrow 17. The conduit has just beyondthe rollers 7 in the elongated inlet portion walls which are curvedtoward each other as indicated so as to reduce the cross section of theconduit at this portion and thus also compact the material at the inletportion.

At its elongated intermediate treating portion the conduit has an innerperforated wall 4, and it will be noted that the cross sectional area ofthe conduit portion defined by the wall 4 is larger than the throat ofthe passage provided by the walls 15, so that the material fed throughthe rollers 7 into the passage defined by the walls 15 will be compactedtherein to seal off the treating chamber surrounded by the perforatedWall 4. At its intermediate portion the conduit also has an outer wallsurrounding in a fluid-tight manner the perforated wall 4 and definingwith the latter an elongated tubular or annular space 29 to which aconduit 28 leads, thus conduit 28 having a branch 27 which passesfluid-tightly through the outer wall into the chamber 29 so as to feedinto the latter a treating fluid such as steam at a suitable pressure,this treating fluid of course passing through the perforated wall 4 intothe interior of the intermediate treating portion to treat the materialtherein, and in this intermediate treating portion the material is in alooser condition than in its compacted condition while passing throughthe throat of the area defined by the walls 15, so that an intimatethorough treatment of the material is provided without interrupting themovement thereof downwardly through the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. Byintroducing the treating fluid such as steam at a relatively highpressure it is possible to reduce the time during which the materialmust remain in the intermediate treating portion while passingtherethrough, so that the elevated pressure makes it possible to movethe material more rapidly through the apparatus to increase the outputwhile at the same time providing a thorough treatment.

In addition to the retarding of the movement of the material by thechange in direction at the outlet portion and the tapering of the wallthereof to reduce the cross section of the conduit at its outletportion, the outlet end carries spring-pressed doors 13 which arehingedly con nected to the edges of the conduit, in the manner shown inFIG. 1A, and suitable springs 14 cooperate with the doors 13 to urgethem to their closed position where the door sections adjoin each otherto almost completely close the outlet end of the conduit. Theconfiguration of the conduit at its outlet end may 'be square, asindicated in FIG. 1A, and in this case each of the four doors is in theform of a right triangle having its hypotenuse edge hingedly connectedto the conduit and having legs of equal length, so that four such doorscan substantially close the entire outlet end of the conduit. Thus, inorder for the material to issue out of the treating conduit thismaterial must not only pass through the tapered outlet portion which isin addition curved, but it must also be able to push open the doors 13,and thus the movement of the material out of the conduit is retarded sothat the material will be compacted and will itself provide a sealpreventing the escape of fluid under pressure to the outlet. Moreover,in order to reduce the cross section of the passage through which thematerial moves just after the treating chamber, there is provided at thejunction between the treating chamber and the elongated output aninflatable member in the form of a tube 18 made of a stretchablematerial such as rubber and having the configuration of an inner tube ofan automobile tire, for example, and this inflatable member 18 isconnected to a suitable source of fluid under pressure which can beproduced for stretching or deflating the member 13 so that in this waythe cross sectional area of the conduit can be adapted to the particularmaterial under treatment thereof to provide a compacting which willreliably prevent escape of the fluid under pressure through theelongated outlet portion of the treating conduit. It is particularlyadvantageous to use the inflatable member 18, which enables the crosssectional interior of the passage to be adjusted, the same fluid as thatwhich is introduced into the treating chamber through the perforatedwall 4, and thus it will be seen that the supply conduit 28 for thetreating fluid such as steam under pressure has in addition to thebranch 27 referred to above a second branch 26 which communicates withthe inflatable member 18 so as to feed to the interior thereof atreating fluid at the same pressure as that which is introduced throughthe branch 27, and thus the adjust ment of the extent of stretching ofthe member 18 to the particular fluid under pressure which is used fortreatment will be automatically regulated in this way as well as:liminating the necessity of an independent source of "uid underpressure for the inflatable member 18.

In the embodiment of the invention which is illustrated in FIG. 2, thematerial is also fed into the apparatus,

through a hopper, but in this case the elongated tubular treatingconduit is horizontal although it still has an elongated inlet portionfollowed by the intermediate treatment portion which is in turn followedby the elongated outlet portion. This elongated outlet portion includesthe tapered section 5 which reduces the cross section of the conduit atits outlet portion so as to form at the outlet portion a means forcompacting the material as it moves through the apparatus so as toprovide in this way a seal which prevents escape of fluid under pressurethrough the outlet. The intermediate treatment portion 9 includes alsoan inner perforated wall 4 surrounded by an outer wall 6 which definesbetween the wall 4 and the wall 6 a chamber which receives the fluidunder pressure such as steam introduced as indicated above through aconduit 27' which communicates with the supply conduit 28, as showndiagrammatically in FIG. 2.

In the case of FIG. 2, there is located at the elongated inlet portion arotary screw 2 which is driven through a motor and suitable drive, asindicated diagrammatically in FIG. 2, and this rotary screw willtransport the material through the elongated inlet portion 1 while atthe same time compacting the material which it withdraws from the supplyhopper so as to provide in this way also through the material itself aseal which prevents the escape of fluid under pressure through theelongated inlet portion. In fact, with such a construction it ispossible to provide the shaft of the rotary screw with an axial bore 12through which the fluid under pressure may also be introduced asindicated, and in this way it will be seen that the fluid under pressureitself contributes to the loosening of the material in the intermediateportion which is of course of a greater cross sectional area than thearea of the conduit at its elongated inner inlet and outlet portions,the space which is occupied by the screw 2 naturally reducing the spacewhich is available for the material itself, so that a compacting thereofnecessarily takes place in the elongated inlet portion. Thus, it will beseen that the embodiment of FIG. 2 is also capable of producing theabove-described results. In addition, it will be noted that because theelongated conduit 3 has an elongated bored rotary screw member throughwhich a treating fluid such as steam under pressure is introduced, theelongated inlet portion of the conduit 3 can form a preheating zone inwhich the material is preheated before reaching the treating zone, andof course the movement of the material is retarded at the elongatedoutlet portion of the conduit 3 which is provided with the reducedsection 5.as indicated above.

Of course, where a treating fluid at an elevated temperature is used,such as steam, the outer surface of the elongated treating conduit willbe provided with a suitable insulating material, and while suchinsulating material is not illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 it can of coursebe included. In the embodiment of FIG. 3 it will be seen that there isindeed an insulating structure surrounding the elongated conduit forinsulating the latter so as to prevent cooling of the treating fluid,and in the illustrated example the insulating structure includesinsulating material 25 housed between the exterior surface of thetreating conduit and an outer jacket 26', as diagrammatically indicatedin FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows how the material is fed between the rollers 7which are driven as described above and which feeds the material througha constricted portion provided as described above in connection withFIG. 1 through suitable walls 15 which are curved inwardly as indicated,and at the elongated outlet portion there are one or more sets ofrollers 7' similar to the rollers 7 continuously withdrawing materialfrom the intermediate treating portion and in addition there is in theelongated outlet portion a curved wall structure 10 providing aconstriction as indicated above with respect to the inlet portion. Thetreating zone itself again includes an inner perforated wall 4'surrounded by an outer wall 6 spaced from the inner wall and definingwith the latter a chamber which receives the fluid under pressure whichmay, for example, be steam. Moreover, it will be seen that a looseningmeans 11 is provided at the junction between the inlet and intermediateportions for loosening the material, and this loosening means can takethe form of an endless belt mounted on suitable pulleys in the interiorof the treating conduit with one of the pulleys driven from the exteriorthereof to a suitable drive which passes fluid-tightly through the wallof the apparatus, and the endless belt carries suitable pins 11 or thelike which project therefrom so that the movement of the belt will serveto reliably loosen material to enhance the intimate and thoroughtreatment thereof in the elongated intermediate portion which it will beseen has a cross sectional area larger than that at the throat of eachof the inwardly curved wall portions in the inlet and outlet of thetreating conduit, so that the embodiment of FIG. 3 will also produce theresult of treating the material While it is in a relatively loosecondition While at the same time preventing escape of the fluid underpressure by the compacted material itself which is situated both at theinlet and at the outlet of the treating conduit.

The inwardly curved wall portions such as the wall portions 10 of theFIG. 3 or 15 of FIG. 1 can take the form of inflatable assembliessimilar to the element 18 described above, so that in this way it ispossible to adjust the extent of constriction of the passage of thematerial so as to contribute in this way also to the compacting thereofin an adjustable manner which is particularly adapted to the particularmaterial which is being treated and the particular treatment thereof.FIG. 4 shows such a construction. Referring to FIG. 4 it will be seenthat the mate- 'rial 17 is introduced by the rollers 7 into theelongated inlet portion of the treating conduit, and in this way thematerial reaches, after passing through the elongated inlet portion, thetreating conduit portion 30 which is intermediate the elongated inletand the elongated outlet of the conduit. At the inlet there is providedan annular flexible stretchable member 31 made of rubber, for example,and through a conduit 12 which can be provided with a non-return valve19 more or less fluid under pressure is delivered to the chamber whichsurrounds the flexble, stretchable wall 31 so as to stretch the latterand thus provide it with contours such as those indicated in dottedlines. As may be seen from the left portion of FIG. 4, it is possible toprovide the solid-line contour where the extent of stretching is aminimum and the cross-sectional area of the inlet is 'at a maximum, orthrough providing more fluid under pressure it is possible to providethe contour 21 so as to reduce the cross-sectional area through whichthe material must pass, and then it is possible to provide even morepressure so as to further reduce the cross section by further stretchingthe material until it has the contour 20, and in this way the materialwhich moves beyond the rollers 7 will necessarily be compacted at'theelongated inlet portion of the conduit to seal off the treating portion30 thereof and thus prevent the escape of fluid under pressure throughthe elongated inlet by the compacted material itself. The extent ofcontraction of the passage in the inlet will depend, for example, on howmuch material is moved through the treating conduit. The treatment ofthe material with a medium such as steam, for example, can be providedthrough nozzles 32 which are diagrammatically indicated and throughwhich the steam is introduced into the interior of the in termediatetreating portion 30 of the conduit, and the steam can be deliveredthrough pipes 23 which communicate with nozzles 33. The steam will inthis way be blown into the treating portion 30 where the material 17 isin a relatively loose condition so that it is thoroughly treated withthe hot steam and thereafter the material reaches the elongated outletportion 34 which is again provided with a cross sectional area less thanthat of the portion 30. One or more sets of driven rollers 8 areprovided at the outlet portion 34 to transport the material in thedirection of the arrow 35 away from the intermediate treating portionwhile the stretchable wall 37 defines with the outer wall of the conduita chamber 36 receiving fluid under pressure through a conduit 12, whichmay also be provided with a non-return valve, so that the extent towhich the stretchable wall 37 is stretched can be regulated to provideeither the solid-line contour or the dotted-line contour 38 whichfurther restricts the passage, and in this way the compacted materialitself will necessarily seal off the intermediate portion 30 so as toprevent the escape of fluid under pressure through the elongated outlet.

While in the above-described embodiments of the invention only rollershave been referred to for transporting the material, it is of coursepossible to use also chains or cooperating endless bands between whichthe material is fed.

The inlet surface of the treating conduit is very smooth so that thematerial can slide therealong with a minimum of friction, and while theconduit may have any cross section a cylindrical cross section ispreferred. Moreover, instead of providing one pair of rollers at theinlet portion and at the outlet portion of the treating conduit, it ispossible to provide a plurality of pairs of rollers, and a rotary wormscrew as shown in FIG. 2 can be used in any of the other embodiments inplace of the rollers.

It is also possible to provide a series of treating chambers withrollers therebetween for transporting the material between the chambersand of course the material can be compacted between such a series oftreating chambers. Where three treating chambers are provided theintermediate chamber will have the highest pressure while the chambersbefore and after the intermediate chamber will have somewhat lowerpressures so that in this way the escape of the treating fluid underpressure is reliably avoided to a very large extent.

As has been indicated above in connection with FIG. 3, a loosening means11 may be provided to loosen the material as it moves into the treatingchamber, and instead of a simple endless belt having projections it ispossible also to use other loosening devices such as endless chains,rotary combs, and the like.

With the structures of the invention the material is maintained incontinuous movement With the volume of material which moves through agiven distance being maintained substantially constant. For example, inthe case of FIG. 2, the volume of material flowing through the treatingportion 24 of the conduit in a given unit of time will be substantiallyequal to the volume of material which flows through the constrictedportion where the material is compacted so as to provide a seal as theabove description indicates. In this way the material is continuouslytransported while it is treated and at the same time a building up oraccumulation of material at any one location is reliably avoided.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful application in other types oftreating devices for textiles differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied intreatment of materials with a fluid at high pressure, it is not intendedto be limited to the details shown, since various modifications andstructural changes may be made without departing in any away from thespirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can by applying current knowledgereadily adapt it for various applications without omitting featuresthat, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essentialcharacteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this inventionand, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to becomprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of thefollowing claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A continuous process for treating material such as textile materialwith a fluid which is under pressure comprising the steps ofcontinuously moving the material between a first pair of rollersrotating in opposite directions at a predetermined speed; moving thematerial through a first compacting zone adjacent said rollers andcompacting the material to a predetermined degree between the innersurface of said zone; moving the material through a treating zoneadjacent said compacting zone; introducing a treating fluid underpressure into said treating zone to treat said material; moving thematerial between a second pair of rollers rotating at a predeterminedspeed; moving the material through a second compacting zone andcompacting the material to a predetermined degree between the innersurface of said second compacting zone, the compacted material in thefirst compacting zone jointly with the first pair of rollers and thecompacted material in the second compacting zone jointly with the secondpair of rollers sealing off the treating fluid in the treating zone.

2. A process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the material is preheatedin the first compacting zone and the movement of the material isretarded in the second compacting zone.

3. In an apparatus for treating textile materials and the like, incombination, an elongated tubular treating conduit having elongatedinlet and outlet portions and an intermediate treating portion betweensaid inlet and outlet portions, said intermediate treating portionincluding an inner perforated wall and an outer wall surrounding andspaced from said inner wall; means communicating with the spacesurrounded by said outer wall for introducing into said space a treatingfluid under pressure which flows through said perforated inner wall intosaid intermediate portion to treat material therein; roller means atsaid inlet portion for feeding material through said inlet portion intosaid intermediate portion While compacting the material in said inletportion for sealing said inlet portion to prevent fluid under pressurefrom escaping through said inlet portion; and roller means at saidoutlet portion for Withdrawing material from said intermediate portionand for compacting the material at said outlet portion to seal off saidintermediate portion at the region adjacent said outlet portion so as toalso prevent the escape of fluid under pressure through said outletportion.

4. In an apparatus for treating textile materials or the like, incombination, an elongated conduit having elongated inlet and outletportions and an intermediate treating portion situated between saidinlet and outlet portions and having a cross sectional area greater thanthat of said inlet and outlet portions; means communicating with saidintermediate portion for introducing into the latter a treating fluidwhich is under pressure; roller means at said inlet portion for feedingmaterial therethrough into said intermediate portion while compactingthe material to seal off said intermediate portion at said inlet portionso as to prevent the escape of fluid under pressure through said inletportion; and roller means at said outlet portion for withdrawingmaterial from said intermediate portion while also compacting thematerial at said outlet portion to seal off said intermediate portionand prevent the escape of fluid under pressure through said outletportion.

5. In an apparatus for treating textile materials and the like, incombination, an elongated tubular treating conduit having anintermediate treating portion and an inlet end portion just prior to andan outlet end portion just subsequent to said intermediate treatingportion, said inlet end portion and said outlet end portion beingnarrower than said treating portion; means communicating with saidintermediate treating portion for introducing into the latter a treatingfluid under pressure; roller means adjacent said inlet portion forfeeding material to said treating portion while compacting the materialso that the material itself jointly with said roller means forms a sealwhich will prevent the pressure of the treating fluid from escapingthrough said inlet portion; roller means adjacent said outlet portionfor withdrawing material from said treating portion and transporting thematerial out of said conduit while also compacting the material at saidoutlet portion for sealing the treating chamber at the portion thereofwhich is adjacent to said outlet portion to also maintain the fluidunder pressure in the treating portion jointly by the compacted materialand by said roller means; and loosening means located at the region ofsaid intermediate portion which is adjacent to said inlet portion forloosening the material which reaches said intermediate portion.

6. In an apparatus for treating textile materials or the like, incombination, an elongated treating conduit having elongated inlet andoutlet portions and an intermediate portion between said inlet andoutlet portions; means communicating with said intermediate portion forintroducing into the latter a treating fluid under pressure; rollermeans adjacent said inlet portion for feeding material to saidintermediate portion; means for reducing the cross sectional area ofsaid conduit at said inlet portion while compacting the material fedthrough to said intermediate portion so that the compacted materialitself will act as a seal to prevent escape of fluid under pressurethrough said inlet portion and through said roller means adjacentthereto; means at said outlet portion for reducing the cross sectionalarea of said conduit at said outlet portion; and roller means forwithdrawing the material from said intermediate portion while compactingthe material so that the material at said outlet portion will also forma seal preventing the escape of fluid under pressure through said outletportion and through said roller means adjacent thereto.

7. In an apparatus as recited in claim 6, said means for reducing thecross sectional area at said outlet portion including a wall portionwhich is curved inwardly toward the axis of the conduit to provide across sectional area at said inlet portion substantially less than thecross sectional area at said outlet portion.

8. In an apparatus for treating textile materials, in combination, anelongated treating conduit having an elongated inlet portion, anelongated outlet portion, and an elongated intermediate portion situated:between said inlet and outlet portions; means communicating with saidintermediate portion for introducing into the latter a treating fluidunder pressure; and a pair of roller means respectively situated at saidinlet and outlet portions for respectively feeding material into andwithdrawing material from said intermediate portion and for compactingthe material in said inlet and outlet portions for sealing off saidintermediate portion to prevent the escape of fluid under pressuretherefrom, said means for compacting the material in said inlet andoutlet portions including at least one of said portions an adjustablewall capable of being adjusted to reduce the cross sectional area ofsaid latter portion to a selected extent.

9. In an apparatus as recited in claim 8, said adjustable wall being inthe form of an annular stretchable member and a means for directingfluid under pressure against said member to stretch the latter to aselected extent for controlling the cross sectional area of the conduitat said stretchable wall thereof.

It). In an apparatus as recited in claim 9, the fluid under pressurewhich is directed against said stretchable wall being the same as thefluid under pressure which is introduced into said intermediate chamber.

'11. An apparatus for treating textile materials and the likecomprising, in combination, an elongated tubular treating conduit openon both ends having an intermediate treating portion, an inlet endportion and an outlet end portion, a part of said inlet portion and apart of said inlet portion and a part of said outlet portionconstituting compacting zones having a cross-sectional area smaller thanthe remaining part of the conduit; two pairs of rollers, one of which isdisposed closely to the inlet of said inlet end portion andsubstantially closing said inlet, the other one being disposed betweensaid intermediate portion and the outlet end portion and substanti allyseparating said two portions said two pairs of rollers moving at apredetermined speed said material through said inlet end portion intosaid intermediate treating portion and subsequently into said outlet endportion thereby compacting said material as it is forced to pass saidcompacting zones of said inlet end portion and said outlet end portion;and means communicating with said intermediate treating portion forintroducing therein a treating fluid under pressure for treating of thematerial, said material, passing said comp-acting zones forming jointlywith said two pairs of rollers a seal for said fluid introduced intosaid intermediate treating portion.

12-. An apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein said compacting zoneshave gradually narrowing and subsequently gradually widening walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,001,435 8/1911Palmer 68178 1,915,812 6/ 1933 WOllenberg.

1,921,080 8/1933 Hammond 68-181 X 2,089,992 8/1937 Campbell et a1.68-5.4 X 2,460,206 1/1949 Wentz 6815 X 2,647,285 8/1953 Pfau.

3,175,375 3/1965 Yazawa et a1 685.5 3,241,343 3/1966 Yazawa 685.5

FOREIGN PATENTS D19,828 10/ 6 Germany.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

1. A CONTINUOUS PROCESS FOR TREATING MATERIAL SUCH AS TEXTILE MATERIALWITH A FLUID WHICH IS UNDER PRESSURE COMPRISING THE STEPS OFCONTINUOUSLY MOVING THE MATERIAL BETWEEN A FIRST PAIR OF ROLLERSROTATING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AT A PREDETERMINED SPEED; MOVING THEMATERIAL THROUGH A FIRST COMPACTING ZONE ADJACENT SAID ROLLERS ANDCOMPACTING THE MATERIAL TO A PREDETEMINED DEGREE BETWEEN THE INNERSURFACE OF SAID ZONE; MOVING THE MATERIAL THROUGH A TREATING ZONEADJACENT SAID COMPACTING ZONE; INTRODUCING A TREATING FLUID UNDERPRESSURE INTO SAID TREATING ZONE TO TREAT SAID MATERIAL; MOVING THEMATERIAL BETWEEN A SECOND PAIR OF ROLLERS ROTATING AT A PREDETERMINEDSPEED; MOVING THE MATERIAL THROUGH A SECOND COMPACTING ZONE ANDCOMPACTING THE MATERIAL TO A PREDETERMINED DEGREE BETWEEN THE INNERSURFACE OF SAID SECOND COMPACTING ZONE, THE COMPACTED MATERIAL IN THEFIRST COMPACTING ZONE JOINTLY WITH THE FIRST PAIR OF ROLLERS AND THECOMPACTED MATERIAL IN THE SECOND COMPACTING ZONE JOINTLY WITH THE SECONDPAIR OF ROLLERS SEALING OFF THE TREATING FLUID IN THE TREATING ZONE.